U.S. taxpayers lost $9.3 billion on the government’s bailout of auto companies

The United States Department of Treasury has finally sold its remaining stake in Ally Financial Inc., resulting to a $9.3-billion loss for US taxpayers from its bailout of the company, General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group. According to department data, the Treasury spent $79.7 billion for the bailout, but only managed to generate $70.4 billion from selling the government’s stakes in those companies.

The last of those stake sales occurred this month as the US government disposed of its remaining $1.28 billion stake in Ally. The three companies received huge rescue funds from the emergency government program as a way to avert their total collapse in 2008, which was feared could lead to a deeper economic crisis.

The bailout had Ally receive $17.2 billion from the program, resulting to a 74-percent stake for the Treasury. Following the stake sale, the government now owns none of Ally.

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew remarked that the emergency government program was a crucial part of the Obama administration’s effort to halt the financial crisis and protect the economy from “slipping into a second Great Depression.”

The government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program in total spent around $426.6 billion to bail out a number of US companies like Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and American International Group Inc. The Treasury has received $441.7 billion in repayments and other income from the program.

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